Ionic Friezes

Question 1

Which 2 ionic friezes do we look at ?

Answer 1

Siphnian treasury

Parthenon’s internal ionic frieze

Question 2

Are ionic friezes the continuous ones ?

Answer 2

Heck yeah

Question 3

Which two friezes are studied on the siphnian treasury temple ?
What myths are depicted ?

Answer 3

East frieze - god’s conferring about Trojan war’s progress and Trojan war
North frieze - battle of gods and giants

Question 4

Describe the east IONIC frieze of the siphnian treasury ? (Gods bit)

Answer 4

• gods divided according to loyalties with Zeus in middle on special chair (archaic trait of objects for identification)
• ares identified by armour and separation from the rest of the gods which is coherent with him not taking a side and being hated by the other gods
• Athene aegis identification

Archaic limitations

• underdeveloped drapery
• apollo 3/4 Turn
• gods have repeated lined arms stressing their unity

Question 5

Describe the east IONIC frieze of the siphnian treasury ? (Troy bit)

Answer 5

Composition - chaotic war fight

Archaic traits -
Awkward 3/4 turns of warriors
- symmetry of circular shield patterns are repeated.
-patterned Shields create depth perception with back and front facing shields overlapping

Question 6

Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the ionic frieze of the EAST siphnian treasury as one ?
Troy and gods ?

Answer 6

Strengths -
Scale accommodated as gods sit down and mortals stand at the gods’ sitting height.

Two forms of agones depicted

Weakness - abrupt perspective change - reflects difficulty in constructing s continuous frieze

Question 7

How does the transition from east to north frieze on the siphnian treasury have disparity of scale ?

Answer 7

Gods and giants on north frieze are the same size as the mortals fighting in the Trojan war on the east side !

Question 8

How successful is the NORTH ionic frieze of the siphnian treasury ?
What is it’s composition ?

Answer 8

Composition - gods vs giants
Gods have objects for identification - chariots
Giants identified by armour

3/4 turns
Success - giant being bitten by lion
Failure - giant fleeing in panic has Head facing opposite way to body
However
MAD ENERGY
-lion creates depth perception in the biting
-repeated circular patterns

Question 9

What’s so special about the Parthenon’s internal ionic frieze ?

Answer 9

First historical depiction - people of Athens depicted on same frieze as the gods! - athen’s “special relationship”
Emphasises extreme Athenian prowess after Delian league money stolen

Question 10

Describe the composition of the Parthenon’s ionic internal frieze ?

Answer 10

West side - riders preparing to ride in the great panathenaic procession - Athens most important religious festival

North and south side -Procession of riders. At the start of the procession drapery is being fastened and shoes are being done up.

• animals are sacrificed - variety and sense of detail
• figures carrying water in ever so slightly different poses
• then into riding horses - dynamism builds

East side - Athenians offer new propose to statue of Athene. Gods look down the frieze at the people of Athens not the peplos -high respect for Athenians
Gods identified - Poseidon looks angry after being snubbed for patronage, ares agitated by no fighting

Question 11

How does the Parthenon’s internal ionic frieze’s position contribute to how it is perceived (2)

Answer 11

Very high up - difficult to see on ground level - for the gods

Frieze can only be seen by Parthenon’s columns, this breaks up the frieze and contributes to the sense of movement